Fever
by Kaeera
Summary: Nosedive is ill - but he doesn't tell the others! What will be the results? A very worried Wildwing and some strange dreams...(one-shot)


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Notes: *looks around* Hello? Is there anybody? Oh...*coughs* I am back. Just wanted to say that. And yeah, here's another Nosedive story. It's a one shot, for all under you who feared that it might be another long story with cliffhangers. Well, I'm not quite satisfied with it...I started to write it weeks ago, then I had some nasty kind of writer's block and I finished it this weekend.

Well, somewhere in the middle I noticed that the whole story changed into something longer – I got a panic attack, because I just wanted to write a little one-shot about Dive and Wing....Luckily I managed it^^

By the way, what's the color of Dive's eyes? I didn't remember it, so I took blue. Please don't kill me if it's different!

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Disclaimer: The characters of this story don't belong to me. Only the plot is mine(I own nothing without my old stinky socks, but you can have them if you want*g*)

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Fever

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by Kaeera

****

Nosedive grumbled and tossed around in his bed, when the sound of the alarm clock was interrupting his dreams.

The blonde duck wasn't anyone you would call a morning person. It didn't matter how early he went sleeping;

in the morning he never felt ready to leave the warm and comfortable bed.

But duty was calling, or better: his big brother Wildwing, leader of the Mighty Ducks and famous for his practice sessions in the early morning. 

Nosedive yawned and stumbled out of his bed. A disgusting sound and feeling under his feet told him that he had just found the taco he had searched yesterday. Gloomily, he looked down on the mess and sighed. Time to wake up fully, he decided and walked towards the bathroom. He splashed cold water in his face and looked into the mirror. "Morning, Dive!", he said in a cheerful tone. He stepped back – and promptly fell over a piece of soap which was lying on the ground. "Ouch!", he groaned and rubbed his back. That had hurt! He took the soap and threw it in the dustbin. After all, it had been lying on the ground for over two weeks, he would definitely _not_ use it. Maybe he could give it to Mallory, he thought, and stared into the dustbin. But – no. It wasn't evil enough.

He chuckled and went into his room to grab some cloths. But his mood didn't last long, for he saw the clock – and noticed that he was late –like always. Wildwing would be furious.

He took a t-shirt and slipped again – this time on an old comic book. Then he laid there, sprawled over the floor, mind full of nasty words he wanted to say, but didn't say, because it wasn't worth the effort. He ignored the wave of dizziness which came over him the moment he stood up, taking it as a result of the small accident. He felt a little bit weird after it. Maybe he had caught a cold.

"Some days you should better stay in bed.", he told the empty room. 

He didn't know how right he was. 

The yawning team had gathered at the ice rink. It seemed as if everyone's eyelids would drop down every second.

Like always, it was Wildwing who shouted a happy 'Morning, guys' which was responded by a unison muffle. 

And like always, it was Nosedive who entered the rink ten minutes too late. Wildwing glared at his little brother.

"I hope you are awake, baby bro', because this training will be a hard one!"

"In the middle of the night I'm never awake.", the teen grumbled and hide a big yawn behind his hand.

"Oh well, whatever.", the older duck rolled his eyes and skated on the ice. "Come on, let's start!", he shouted, and the team followed him.

Nosedive enjoyed the fresh breeze in his face – it woke him slowly, but steadily up. He skated some rounds until he didn't yawn every 3o seconds, then they started practice.

But today it was somehow...different. The puck seemed to be a lot of faster than usual – or was Nosedive just slower? Whatever it was, it was getting on his nerves. He couldn't concentrate, and every time he tried to hit the puck with full force, he missed. 

"Stop!", Wildwing yelled from the goal, "Nosedive, what are you doing there? You are supposed to play ice-hockey, not to hit around with your stick like a mad ol'witch!"

"Sorry, Wing", Dive shrugged and played with his stick, "I guess I'm just a bit tired."

"Maybe you should go to bed earlier, kid.", Duke suggested, which earned him a annoyed glance of his younger team-mate. He chuckled. "After all, you don't have extra powers like the heroes of your comics do. You need your sleep, as well as we others."

"Whatever.", Nosedive answered darkly and took the puck. "Let's continue!", he shouted then, hoping to get over this uncomfortable topic. They always had to complain about something. 

Adults. Nosedive sighed. He would never understand them.

Then he pulled himself together, concentrating on the game, ignoring again the dizzy feeling which came over him. This time it was stronger, though; for a moment the whole rink whirled around him and he wasn't sure anymore what was moving; he or the rink.

But it went over, and Nosedive shook his head, feeling a little bit sick. 'Damn', he thought, 'Stupid Cold'.

For a moment he thought about telling his brother of his condition – well, but he really did need training, and after all, he could handle a small cold on his own. He wasn't a kid anymore.

"Ouch", Nosedive winced, when he left the pond. "That was a hard one!" It was strange; normally, after morning practice, he was fully awake and enterprising. But this time? He would have liked it to go to bed immediately. But he couldn't do that – Mookie and Trash were waiting for him, _and_ they had a game this evening. If he laid down, everyone - especially Wildwing - would think that he was ill. And that meant no game for the Mighty Ducks, no fun, only boredom.

Well, okay, he was ill, but it was just a cold. Human beings had that every week, and they went working without any problems.

'Ah crap. Forget about it!', Dive mentally slapped himself and took the bike. Soon he was on his way.

* * * 

"Hey folks!", Nosedive shouted and entered the shop.

"Morning Dive,", Trash replied, "Anything new? Maybe some green slimy aliens who came to kill us all and use our brains for their androids?"

"Nope", the blonde duck grinned, "Just the usual stuff; playing ice-hockey, saving the earth, ya know what I mean."

"How boring", Mookie sighed and took some comics out of the cupboard.

"I think you might want to have this.", she smiled and handed them to Dive.

"Hey, wow...that's great...", he looked through the pile, "Cool, the new Batman comic...and here...boy, I didn't expect it this month...HA! Now I've something to read! Thanks a lot."

"Hey, you're welcome! After all, we are friends."

Nosedive watched his – weird – friends. Every time he met them, they remembered him of Puckworld and the great friends he had left there. He missed them. Not that Trash and Mookie were bad friends, it was just...they were _human_!! He did miss some duck friends, someone at his age he could play hockey with.

Well, maybe that was the prize a hero had to pay...and after all, he could consider himself lucky to _have_ some friends. And a cool brother. And a bunch of warriors who fight with you and risk their lifes. He smiled. 

Life wasn't that bad after all.

Suddenly there was this nauseous feeling again, but this time it hit him with an intensity...the whole room swirled around him, his vision got blurry...and then he didn't feel nauseous anymore, he felt....weird!

He knew that he was in the room, knew that he was standing there, holding a packet of comics in his hands, but he felt different. As if..._as if he had left his body in the room, but his soul was flying around somewhere...._

"Whoaaa, cool!", was the only thing he could think. He wanted to say something, wanted to rub his eyes, but his body didn't respond. Strangely he wasn't frightened.

Then it was all black for a moment, and Nosedive found himself back in his body, Trash in front of him, saying something. He blinked. One Moment...Trash had been on the other side of the room, hadn't he? But now he stood there in front of him!

"Hey, dude, are you alright?", Trahs asked with an look of bewilderment and concern on his face.

Nosedive blinked again. "Ehm...yes. Think so. Why do you ask?"

He was still trying to collect the thoughts which were whirling around in his head. Questions like 'What was that', questions he didn't know an answer for. And the most important of all:

Where the hell had the last two minutes gone? - He didn't remember them, they just – vanished.

"Boy, that was strange!", Trash told the distracted Nosedive. "You just blanked out and stared into the space. It was kinda scaring! Are you really okay?"

He mustered him, joined by Mookie who had come over. "Yeah, yeah...it's just a little cold.", Nosedive smiled a bit. "Nothing to worry about!"

He put up his hands. "Don't look at me like that – it's a cold. Nothing serious."

They nodded, but didn't look too convinced. "You should go home and rest.", Mookie suggested, "Even when it is just a cold, you have a game tonight and you should be fit then."

Nosedive rolled his eyes. "Allright, Mum, I'll go home and read the comics."

Mookie smiled. Stubborn, stupid Nosedive. 

If she had heard the words he muttered while leaving the shop, she would have been a little bit more concerned.

__

"How did I loose two minutes?"

* * * 

The ride home wasn't eventful. Once or twice Nosedive caught himself in zoning out – not as extreme as in the shop – but it was still annoying, and he couldn't help being concerned. 

He was angry that he didn't have entire control over his body. "Maybe I should tell Tanya about it", he wondered, but immediately regretted this thought. Tanya would tell Wildwing, and his overprotective brother would worry. And cancel the game. Nosedive didn't want his brother to worry; he hated it when other people felt bad because of him. That was one reason why he played the clown so often – this way people laughed about him, or shook their heads, but they didn't worry. Life was much easier this way.

He sighed as he entered the Pond. Well, it would be easier if there weren't _always_ things to worry about – like Dragaunus, for example. _And_ if his brother would be such an _overprotective_ one! He was, after all, 17 – but nobody seemed to notice that, never mind how often Dive pounded on his rights.

Ah. Being a teenager was just wonderful!

"Hey, baby bro', back already?", Wildwing walked around the corner. "What happened? Have Mookie and Trash finally discovered a way to Mars?"

Nosedive snorted and replied angrily: "Very funny, Wing. And don't call me 'baby bro' – I'm 17 and not a kid anymore."

"How you wish, baby bro'!", Wildwing chuckled.

The younger duck sighed. Yeah, it was like always. Stupid adults, they should better....

His thoughts were interrupted by a coughing fit which shook his whole body. And then it happened again....

His body was...nowhere. He was flying, floating in the air...his surroundings somehow dizzy and unclear, but warm and friendly. And his mind...wasn't there. He could think, but he couldn't...It was strange. He knew that he shouldn't be there, but he wasn't frightened. He knew that he was still Nosedive, but he couldn't say whether 1+1 was two or three – or maybe one and a half! And then there was this voice....

And Nosedive snapped back to reality, this time the concerned face of his brother right in front of his view.

'Whoaaa!', he thought- 'Something is definitely not right here!'

Then he realized that Wildwing was asking something. "What?", he tried to remember the question, but in his brain was only the memory of the strange feeling.

"I asked if everything is okay." his brother repeated and glanced at him. "You were...zoning out, kinda. It scared me, baby bro'!"

He put his hand on Dive's forehead, but the blonde duck immediately shoved it away.

"I'm fine, don't worry.", he lied, "I was just thinking about something Mookie told me. And well, I didn't sleep well last night, ya know, so I'm a little bit tired."

The concerned look didn't vanish from Wing's face. "It didn't look like that. You were standing there and staring into the space. For over five minutes! And you didn't hear me when I was calling you. Maybe Tanya should check you..."

"I told you, I'm fine." Nosedive repeated, this time more angry. "And besides, you know Tanya, she will run a few thousands of tests to make sure that I am okay. We have a game tonight, Wing, and I wanna win!"

He hurried away from his bother, for he feared that he would tell the truth if he stayed longer. Hell, what was happening? Why was he zoning out?

It wasn't like being unconscious (he had the pleasure of this feeling very often, unfortunately), it was like dreaming and being awake in the same second.

He had never been sick like that, and it frightened him. What if he had caught something serious? – But no, this was just a cold. It was nothing...really...

It happened when he entered his room. The dizzy feeling. The scene swirling around him. His pounding head.

'Oh no', he panicked and grabbed the wall. 'Not again!' 

But he couldn't prevent it. Frightened he noticed that his body didn't obey anymore and was falling – slowly, like in slow-motion - to the ground. Weird...he was seeing everything, the floor which grew bigger and his hand, which didn't do anything. And he heard the loud 'THUMB' he made when his body hit it, but he didn't feel the pain. Any pain.

His comic books were flying around him, landing beside him. The room became blurry and Nosedive blinked – wanted to blink, but nothing happened. 'My God', was the last clear words he could remember, then his eyelids dropped and left him in the darkness....

* * * 

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It was warm. Comfortable. Not the warmth of the sunshine, though – it was more like everything was warm: himself, the air, his clothes...

There was nothing to be seen. It was dark...no, it was light...he couldn't describe it. 'You should be frightened', some part of his mind screamed, but he couldn't see a reason to be. He felt good. 

Peaceful.

Calm.

For a moment he wondered where his brother was and if he wasn't worried. 

But he soon forgot about it, like he forgot everything. Nothing stayed, just...just...

What was that? Someone was crying? Who....

Slowly a scene formed before his eyes. First the ground, then some trees and grass. 

He still couldn't move. 

Who was crying?

Then he realized that _he_ was crying. Tears were falling of his cheeks, glittering in the light(whatever light it was, because he hadn't discovered a sun yet) and landing on his open hands.

But he had no reason to cry!

And although he was crying, his cheeks weren't wet. 

Suddenly a small boy stepped into his view. He watched him with an strange expression.

It was a human boy, with huge violet eyes and green hair.

......

Violet eyes?

Green Hair?

"Why are you crying?", the boy asked.

The duck looked on his hands, then stared right into these violet eyes.

"I don't know...", he answered slowly, somehow hoping that these kid could hive him an answer.

* * *

Reality:

"Tanya, where are you?", Wildwing yelled and entered the lab, carrying an unconscious Nosedive in his arms.

"I'm here", Tanya answered, "What do...Oh my god! What happened?", she hurried to Wing's side, helping him to lay the teen on the bed. 

"I don't know!", Wildwing answered worriedly, "I just found him like that, lying on the floor. But he seemed to be okay when I met him..."

He watched Tanya who was examining Nosedive. The sight of his brother in the floor has frightened him. Nosedive was one of the rare reasons he didn't give up hope – if he died...the leader didn't want to think of that.

" He's burning with fever!", Tanya shouted dumbfounded. 

"What?", Wing couldn't believe it. So that was the reason why Dive had zoned out earlier! And he, he didn't notice it, he had let him go like that, although he knew that his younger brother wasn't that fine. 

He could have slapped himself! He knew, after all, how stubborn Dive was. He never wanted to worry his brother, so he never showed it if he felt bad! Nosedive hated it to worry others....how stupid!

"Will he be okay?", he asked timidly, as if he didn't want to hear the answer.

Tanya shook her head. "I don't know it. The fever's pretty high. But I think it will go when I inject him this medicament."

"Hope so...", Wing whispered.

* * *

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"If you don't know the reason, why do you cry then?"

Nosedive shrugged. "Actually, I don't want to cry. It just happens. And I can't prevent it."

The boy blinked. "But you are an adult, or? Adults can manage everything!"

Nosedive just stared. "....Well, it's not that easy", he tried to explain, "Even adults can fail, you must know."

Violet eyes met blue ones.

"You aren't an adult, you are just a kid!", the boy exclaimed.

The duck felt anger rise. This boy was definitely annoying! "Whatever!", he muttered darkly.

"Bwahahaha!", the laughter was filling the air, and Nosedive jumped. "What was that?!"

"That was me!", Trash jumped out of nowhere, with a large green sombrero oh his head and an old broomstick in his hand. 

"Trash?", Nosedive gasped. "What are you doing here?"

Trash shrugged, which made the sombrero fall on the ground. "Ouch, damn...", he took the strange thing, pushed the dirt away and put it on his head again, "Actually, I have no idea.", he declared and pointed to Nosedive, "After all, it is your dream, and not mine!"

The blonde duck twinkled an eyebrow in confusion. "My dream?"

"Yup.", Trash was now staring at the broomstick, "And I must say, it is a pretty weird dream. I mean...look at me, what am I doing with a broomstick, after all? Am I the little witch or what!"

"But why am I dreaming?", the teen asked curiously, not quite understanding the latest events.

Trash just stared at him. "Hell, why are you dreaming? Well, I don't know how it is with your ducks, but I do usually dream when I am sleeping.", he chuckled, "Okay, this dream is a little bit different...it's a fever dream."

"Fever?"

"Boy, are you slow! You. Are. ILL. And you have a fever – don't you remember? You collapsed in your room..."

Nosedive searched for the memory. Now he remembered – the weird feeling, the cold..."Oh crap. Seems that I should have told it Tanya!", he muttered gloomily.

"Oh yeah, maybe", Trash yawned, "But it really isn't that bad. You just have some weird dreams. Bye!"

And with these words, he disappeared into thin air, leaving a very stunned Nosedive.

"Haha.", he told himself, "I just love it. Wildwing will be worried like hell; the game this evening will be cancelled; Tanya will hold me a lecture for not telling her _and_ I won't be allowed to go out for the next weeks!" 

He knew that he should have stayed in bed!

* * *

Reality:

"He should be okay now.", Tanya stated.

The others exchanged glances. "Are you sure?", Duke asked. 

Tanya sighed and watched the team which had gathered in the infirmary around their ill friend. 

"The worst is over. The only thing he has to do is to rest and sleep now."

"What caused this illness after all?", Wing wanted to know.

"Seems that Dive has caught a bad case of influenza. If he had told me earlier that he didn't feel well, it wouldn't have come this far.", Tanya shook her head.

"And now", the expression on her face changed from worried to determined: "Now you will all leave the infirmary!" With these words, she pushed the rest of the team out of the room.

* * *

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Nosedive silently wandered through his dreamworld. It was strange; knowing that you dream.

He couldn't wait to wake up; but he guessed that his body was pretty exhausted by whatever bug he caught.

Walking around a corner, he wasn't surprised to see Mallory and Duke in front of a flipper. "Hi!", he shouted.

The both turned around. "Hello, kid!", Duke grinned, "There's still pizza in the fridge. You should eat it."

"Ehm..thanks.", Nosedive stuttered bewildered. Pizza? 

Mentioning this, his stomach began to hurt. He was hungry! He hadn't have anything for breakfast this morning, and his usual visit at Taco Bell had failed due this unexpected event.

Dive sighed. Being stuck in a weird dream world was okay, but being hungry? No.

"Bwahahahaha!" 

Nosedive sighed. "Trash, you again?"

"Yo!", Trash cheered. This time he was followed by Mookie, wearing a pink Santa Clause outfit. She looked furious.

"DIVE!", she screamed, "What the hell are you thinking? Putting me in a Christmas dress!!!!!!"

Nosedive had to hold back the laughter. "Well, it looks quite charming, don't you think?"

Mookie was fuming now. "YOU WILL PAY FOR THAT!"

Trash stepped beside Dive. "I'm of the opinion that it looks cool!", he stated, with a huge smile on his face.

"I don't know where the problem is."

He looked at Dive and both boys started grinning evilly.

"Yeah, especially the color!", Dive added, "It gives her such a...feminine touch!"

"But something is missing!", Trash explained, while Mookie's face color had changed from normal to red.

They both looked at each other and blurted out: "Bells!!"

Nosedive continued: "Wonderful, golden bells, which sound with every step you make!"

Immediately Mookie was full of bells, and the two boys burst out in laughter – Trash lost again his sombrero.

"I KILL YOU!!!!", and she chased the two through the whole scene.

'Somehow I like this dream', Dive thought. 

For a short moment he wondered where the boy had went – the green haired and violet eyed one – but after all, this was a dream, so it didn't matter.

He only wanted to know why he had dreamed of him. And thenit hit him! The comics....he had seen him in one of them. Yay! And now he was dreaming of him, how weird – but well, he was dreaming of Mookie in a christmas suit which was even weirder. 

And then...then it was over. Something was lifting him up; first he struggled against it, but Trash told him that everything was okay. "Don't panic!", he shouted, "You are just waking up!"

But Nosedive didn't want to wake up! It was too funny right now!

Unfortunately his will wasn't heard by his body. The world around him got blurry, and darkness appeared.

Then he felt the pain in his head, and the bed under his back.

'Great', he thought. 'Right now when it got funny. I HATE it'

Then he returned to his body...

* * *

Nosedive stirred and opened the eyes. It took some time to focus his vision, but then he could recognize his surroundings. Infirmary. Great!

He slowly managed himself into a sitting position. His head was hurting, and he felt exhausted. 

"So you are finally awake.", Wildwing entered the room with a stern look on his face.

"Well, I didn't have anything better to do.", Nosedive croaked. His voice sounded terrible!

"Dive, Dive, Dive...", his brother sighed, "What shall I do with you, baby bro'?"

"I'm not your baby brother!"

"Yes, you are!", Wildwing insisted with some anger in his voice. "Or do you think the way you acted was responsible? You should have told me – us – that you didn't feel well!"

Nosedive shrunk under the furious glare of his older silbling. "I didn't want to worry you."

"You didn't want to worry me?", Wing laughed, "Hell, Dive, I found you collapsed on the floor ; you think that I wouldn't worry about __that__?"

"Hey, I didn't know that it wasn't that bad", Nosedive protested, "I thought it was just a little cold."

"A little cold with a fever that high that you have illusion dreams?"

Nosedive shrugged and remember some events which had happened in his dream world. He smiled. "Well, the dreams were quite funny."

Wildwing put his hands in the air. "Dive, this is serious! If that happens again, it might be something worse. Don't you understand it?", he sat down on the bed, "Nosedive, I want you to worry me. Please. 

If anything is bothering you; or if you are feeling bad, then please tell me! I am not that worried when I _know_ what's wrong with you, because then I can _help_ you!"

There was silence between them. Then Nosedive looked up, straight into the eyes of his brother.

"I'm sorry Wing. If anything like that happens again, I'll tell you – promised!"

Wing smiled and slapped him on the shoulder. "That's a deal!" Nosedive started grinning, too, and remembered something.

"Do we still have any pizza left?"

****

End

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How was it? Good? Bad? Please tell me. I want to know how I can improve my writing. 

And please notice that I am German – grammatical errors will be found in this story. It was my first story written in this style, too, and it was quite difficult to find the words sometimes.

Like my friend Latrisha (also an author on ff.net) once said: "The dictionary became my best friend."

You can say that for me, too*sighs*

Okay...leave me a message or mail me – kaeera@yahoo.de

BYE Kaeera 

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